Tiny Faces On Broccoli To Be Heartlessly Discontinued, As Will These Decapitated Heads On Jam Jars

The bloggers that noticed the “tiny faces on broccoli” and shared their discovery with the world (click here to catch up with the horror), have decided to do a little investigative journalism. They contacted the company that photoshopped the little faces onto their broccoli package and got a response. It seems that the tiny faces are a tradition that is now on the chopping block…

“Dear Mrs. Carrier:

Thank you for contacting us concerning Cascadian Farm. We appreciate the opportunity to address this matter. Unfortunately, there is no one available for you to interview. However, I have included some information about the history behind the faces.
The tradition of hiding names or faces on Cascadian Farm packaging began over a dozen years ago. It was unspoken tribute by the package design department to the friends & family of Cascadian Farm. The faces won’t be included on our redesigned packaging.

@SkokieGuy: The benefit is killing a “tradition” that has been unknown to anybody outside the packaging design department and was getting a lot of attention on the internet. I’m sure management views this as a packaging error and will take appropriate action with the person who approved this and the individuals who contributed.

Food companies aren’t exactly known for their sense of humor which is a shame since this generated a rather positive response on the internet. I for one would purchase their product just to hand it to my friends and say “see if you can find the faces on this package!” like some sort of Where’s Waldo game…

I actually like the faces! Being a packaging designer myself, i like it even better after i know the story behind it. I would have went out and bought a bag just to see them for myself. Why discontinue?? WHY!!!

You know, this was a great marketing strategy. Especially with the frozen food. Instead of standing in the aisle trying to find the faces, you were more likely to buy it, take it home, use the veggies, and search the empty bag. This is like those placemats at diners where you have to find all the symbols in the ads, as it makes you read the ads. Look how popular Where’s Waldo is. I would totally sit at the breakfast table looking for faces in the jar as I eat my toast and buttered roll.

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy–>: Reminds me of how painters of frescos & murals would sometimes add their friends & benefactors as background characters to the scene – or find a way to put their enemies into hell. Duomo in Florence is my favorite example: [www.burkepaterson.com]

I do hope they keep the faces. I had never heard of these products before seeing these postings, but now I am trying to find them out there. If these images are pictures of employees, I think it is a fantastic tribute to them and their hard work. It is a harmless “easter egg” that should continue.

Dear Cascadia Farms,
I was saddened to hear that you will be redesigning your product packaging so that it does not contain obscure faces. I’ve found these faces to be an intriguing and delightful tradition. Though they have only recently been discovered by the general public, they have quickly become a beloved, if quirky, icon of your product and are certainly drawing attention to your brand. Please reconsider this choice!

The phrase “decapitated heads” makes no sense whatsoever. You can have decapitated bodies but to have decapitated heads, the heads would have to have heads which would be removed, leaving headless heads.

Phew, I thought there was some weird illness in the jars of grape jam (at initial glance of the article). I can handle the weird faces on the labeling. I had a slice of toast with this stuff just last night. Good stuff.

I remember Unwrapped talking about this. It was photos of the people’s friends and families or something. Or it could have been the workers themselves as well. Something like that, but definitely intentional. I guess people don’t like seeing hidden faces on their packages.

Innocent little faces? I’m not so sure. General Mills owns Cascadian farms. Cascadian farms is not some small time, down home operation, but a big business entity. Those faces…more to it than meets the eye in my view.

Sounds like they don’t really know what to do with the emails requesting the heads back. I just got the standard form letter (email?) in response:

“Dear Ms. Hall:

Thank you for contacting Cascadian Farm. Your comments are important to us.

We are committed to making a difference in the lives of our consumers. As a result, we hold ourselves to the highest standards in everything we do, from advertising to food safety. Feedback such as yours is important to the nature of our business.

We appreciate your loyalty and the time you took to contact us. Please be assured that we will share your thoughts with the appropriate individuals.

Currently, the consumer feedback form isn’t working. (I can fill out the page, but the “send comments” link goes to an error message.) Is there an email address that we could send our encouragement to keep the faces to?

i never knew of this brand until the post about the little faces. Since then i was at my local grocery store looking to buy some of their product to see if i could spot some of it myself.. didn’t see anything, but if i did, i would have certainly bought it.

Although I read on the Internet that if you play Cascadian Farms broccoli backwards on your turntable, you can hear Satan telling you to “Eat Quarter-Pounders and Chocolate Shakes until you Puke.” Creepy!

I’d print a retraction on all these stupid blog posts about the faces and write an apology to the companies. This is a good example of a company that consumerist would right about, a company destroying a tradition. Some one should write a letter to consumerist about this travesty perpetrated by consumerist. Wholly in appropriate.